Thompson SMG

I think the registry lists 5/6000 fa owners. Anyone have a American 180 22 fa? That is the gun, made in Austria
in the 1970's. I went to see the distributor in Salt Lake City for accessories. Was an interesting way to spend the
day. They had guard tower mounts with laser sights to let people know they were under the gun. Also had electric
switch setups like on a British 303 aircraft gun, which were fired by compressed air in ww2. I have some of these.
 
I felt like holding a mortar block in my hands when I held a 1928 Tommy gun. I got to shoot 3 full mags on full auto out of one and it was pure love. (Mind you, only about 5 of each 30 rounds I shot went into the target, the rest went into the ceiling or pretty damn near it. The muzzle climb was something awesome!!)
 
^ Jeez, not another candidate for buying a gym membership. Guys, its a pistol round being fired out of 12 Lbs of beautifully machined steel and wood. An American classic.
 
Who doesn't shoot an Uzi one handed? :evil:

Since the thread has already been hijacked .....

Semi-auto or full auto? As a Lineman/Cable Splicer in the Signal Corps, my issue weapon was the Sterling 9mm SMG. I can't imagine a less formidable weapon in combat. In SA mode, it would be less effective than the 9mm Browning I owned.
I could shoot the pistol more effectively out to 50 yds and it was one hell of a lot lighter and easier to pack while on the job. Of course, you had to be an Officer in order to be issued with one.
During my time in, I 'acquired' a case of 9mm ammo while stationed in Churchill. Weekend trips out on the tundra convinced me that I was far better armed with the pistol than the Sterling.
 
Could anyone chime in and tell me what the process was to buying full autos when it was legal to do so back then?

Also were CA treated as restricted or non-restricted depending on their appropriate specifications?

Thanks!
 
^CAs back in the day when you could crack open the "Access to Firearms" or "Gunrunner" and buy whatever one wished mail the vender your FAC (only $10 each to buy that and if you bought lots good to have a couple) then the vender mailed the gun either to you if NR or to the local police if restrict. It really came down to barrel length making it restrict or not, none of that stupid (if it was full auto then its always going to be considered FA silliness) So that said a MG34/42-1919-Bren-PKM-SGM-.50HMG-etc was just a non-restrict "rifle", A AK or Galil with a original barrel (under 18.5) would fall into the Restrict zone, weld a extension to the barrel and presto its then non-restrict. Full (normal capacity) mags totally cool also. Since the 1980s we have lost much ground and really do live from election to election now, mark my words if we get a Liberal or socialist government in by the end of their mandate we are well and truly cooked as a sport or activity.
 
Since the thread has already been hijacked .....

Semi-auto or full auto? As a Lineman/Cable Splicer in the Signal Corps, my issue weapon was the Sterling 9mm SMG. I can't imagine a less formidable weapon in combat. In SA mode, it would be less effective than the 9mm Browning I owned.
I could shoot the pistol more effectively out to 50 yds and it was one hell of a lot lighter and easier to pack while on the job. Of course, you had to be an Officer in order to be issued with one.
During my time in, I 'acquired' a case of 9mm ammo while stationed in Churchill. Weekend trips out on the tundra convinced me that I was far better armed with the pistol than the Sterling.
Are you a Brit?? Canada only used the SMG C1, it is even stamped that on the gun. Never saw a Sterling SMG in Canadian service myself.
 
Could anyone chime in and tell me what the process was to buying full autos when it was legal to do so back then?

Also were CA treated as restricted or non-restricted depending on their appropriate specifications?

Thanks!

I missed the boat on FAs. CAs started showing up in the mid 1980s. At that time it was just about barrel length. Any FAC holder at the time could buy a long barreled one, like a real US GI M14, a BAR, or a BREN with no restrictions. But a Thompson, having a less than 18" barrel, came under the restricted category.

As a result of the Kim Campbell "initiatives" in the 1991/92 timeframe all CAs and FAs were re-registered as prohibited after being subjected to technical examination by the RCMP. Ownership of them was then "grandfathered" to existing bona-fide collector owners with no possibility of new owners being allowed to own and shoot them at a range. The door finally closed around 2006 when the police/CFOs stopped issuing ATTs for registered owners to take them to the range for recreational shooting.

Basically the deed is done. All existing FAs and CAs slumber in the safes of their "grandfathered" owners who can only sell them to an ever dwindling number of other "grandfathers" or have them de-activated or turn them over to the local gendarmes. To my knowledge no FA or CA in the hands of a licensed owner in Canada has ever been used for criminal purposes. There was a hope that the Harper Conservatives would roll some of this back and at least permit the issue of ATTs for licensed owners to be able to shoot these firearms. There was even some hope that the CA classification would be eliminated (after all the RCMP technical inspections had verified that these could not be easily switched back to FA function), but this has never come to pass. And Canada is now a much safer place.

Back in the 1970s I used to shoot with an Army buddy who had a FA BREN and a Lewis gun. At the time we could get barrels full of free .303 and .30-06 ball ammo from the military for recreational shooting. As I recall, the FA purchase process at the time was something like you went through to get a handgun, just an application to the politzie. I think the only reason that some of us didn't get into FAs at the time was due to their comparatively high cost and low availability.
 
but it was often referred to as the stirling or even a PATCHETT by our sergeants or whoever was oic of the troops- and properly deployed, the uzi has the stock extended and the" wrong" arm goes on the forearm- in this configuration, the one I have is quite capable of chewing herman the ger
man's ear off- even on f/a- I, like the previous op was issued the smg, and I think I put all of 3 mags through it in the time I was in as well
 
Last edited:
I liked the SMG and did a lot of shooting with it. Story out of school; we used to do month long summer concentrations in Wainwright where we lived in field bivouacs in the training area. A few of us old time gunnutz would book a piece of the training area with a heavy concentration of gophers for a live fire exercise and then have at them with pistols, SMGs, FN C1s and C2s. It was a great way to while away a sunday afternoon and keep the gopher population trimmed down in the process. I don't think that people do this kind of thing anymore, but it was great marksmanship training trying to hit those popcan sized little boogers with a pistol or an SMG.
 
Are you a Brit?? Canada only used the SMG C1, it is even stamped that on the gun. Never saw a Sterling SMG in Canadian service myself.

No, I'm not a Brit. Those of us that carried the SMG C1 called it a Sterling. Like t-star said, we had some old soldiers who referred to it as the Patchett, I think due to an earlier evaluation of that gun when it was being considered for adoption.

I handled but did not fire a few Brit models while serving in Germany with 4CMBG. They were similar, but had a different spring set up and seemed less clunky than ours.
 
patchett was the guy who designed it- all the information is there on wiki- the main diff between us and the brits was the bayonet ring mount, it was still a tube with a spring, and breechblock- everybody that was"mounted" carried the smg- armor, payroll, service, you name it
I think gopher "target practice" was a universal "thing" amongst the troops- I never did hit anything with some of the weapons I was issued, the m1919a4, but it was fun- I remember one of the chaps hit a gopher hole with a 50- mounted on the m113a1, it offered almost no recoil- but the best gopher getter was the 81mm mortar- take out the whole hill
 
Last edited:
I used to get a kick out of going on pay parade. You marched up to the blanket draped table like going on orders parade, saluted the paymaster whose bag of gold was protected by 2 MPs with SMGs, picked up your $37.53 or whatever, saluted again, 'bout turn and away you go. By the time I left Cpls were manning the pay wicket with no MPs or SMGs in sight.:rockOn:
 
patchett was the guy who designed it- all the information is there on wiki- the main diff between us and the brits was the bayonet ring mount, it was still a tube with a spring, and breechblock- everybody that was"mounted" carried the smg- armor, payroll, service, you name it
I think gopher "target practice" was a universal "thing" amongst the troops- I never did hit anything with some of the weapons I was issued, the m1919a4, but it was fun- I remember one of the chaps hit a gopher hole with a 50- mounted on the m113a1, it offered almost no recoil- but the best gopher getter was the 81mm mortar- take out the whole hill

Magazine was different as well. C1 had reg. follower whereas the Stering had those rollers. Not interchangeable as I recall
 
Magazine was different as well. C1 had reg. follower whereas the Stering had those rollers. Not interchangeable as I recall
L2 SMG (what everyone runs around calling the "Sterling/Patchette") magazines will work just fine in the Canadian C1 SMG and towards the end of the C1 SMGs time in CF service new L2 Mags where popping up for issue. In fact just to see if it could work or not I used a Sten mag one time, fed just fine also, never did get around to seeing if a MP40 mag worked or not in the C1 SMG but I suspect it would.
 
L2 SMG (what everyone runs around calling the "Sterling/Patchette") magazines will work just fine in the Canadian C1 SMG and towards the end of the C1 SMGs time in CF service new L2 Mags where popping up for issue. In fact just to see if it could work or not I used a Sten mag one time, fed just fine also, never did get around to seeing if a MP40 mag worked or not in the C1 SMG but I suspect it would.

I stand corrected.

So the single feed Sten mag worked?? I wouldn't have thought that either
Live and learn...
No matter how old and senile you get...live and learn:)
 
Back
Top Bottom